Seeking truth through diverse,openminded expression,explaining america to the world
Friday, May 27, 2022
People, Killing People, With Assistance
GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, people kill people, goes the right wing meme, if "meme" is the proper word. Trope? Adage? Idiocy? Cars don't kill people, people kill people. Cigarettes don't kill people, people kill people. Viruses don't kill people.....I recall my father tllin gme that he knew very well that smoking cigarettes was going to kill him, but that he chose to continue smoking, becuse he was utterly unable to break the habit. He died from lung cancer which had spread to the brain. A friend once told me, when I suggested he consider quitting cigarettes, that, "something's gonna kill you". I retorted that since that was the case, why not kill yourself? I wish I hadn't said that, but the good news is, he's still alive, knock on wood, as we say. And whereas cars and cigarettes kill nobody, if there were fewer of them, if people used them with less frequency, there would be far fewer people using them to kill themselves and others with vehicular mistakes and second hand smoke. If they didn't exist at all, nobody would commit suicide by using them, for lack of opportunity. The argument against guns is that indeed people kil lother people with guns, the guns bieng merely the instrument of choice, but that if guns ownership were reduced, opportunities for people to kill themselves and others with them would be reduced, and if guns did not exist, there would be no opportunity whatever, and killers would be compelled to find other means. Whatever the alternative method of mass murder, it would prsumably require more time and effort than required to use an assault rifle for a minute. American culture is deeply rooted in the greed requisite for successful capitalism, and in the anger and resentment facilitated by a society predicated almost entirely on competition. A history of violence and the availability of means of mass destruction combine to produce a culture of death. May we seek fundamental societal reform. Last year approximately forty five thousand Americans were killed by people, people who were faithfully aided by gunfire. So far this year in the United Kingdom, a country which several years ago placed strict limitations on gun ownership, four people have died from gunshot wounds. As we say, statistics don't lie. This change of policy was precipitated by a mass murder in Scotlan, a rare event in the U.K., and indeed in every country in the world other than the United states. The argument that cricket bats can be used as murder weapons is counterd by teh reality that with a cricket bat a murderer needs much more time to commit mass murder, cannot kill from a distance, and can be far more easily stopped, by a good rolling tackle if nothing else. We are told that to restrict firearm ownership in the aftermath of a mass murder is "politicizing" the tragedy, which ignores the obvious reality that gun policy is a public concern, and thus, inherently political, and that advocates of gun control conduct their advocacy throughout the year, whether there are mass murders or not. Former president Trump, speaking at teh NRA convention, described this alleged "politicization" of mass murder events as "grotesque". Regarding grotesque, Trump is certainly an expert. Every NRA member who entered the builing in Houston was frisked to ensure that no firearms were being broug inside. It seems that the NRA is not confident that none of its own members are potentiali mass murderers. Shouldn't they all be required to carry guns into their conventions? After all, the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun, so they say, is a good guy with a gun. The trick, there and everywhere, is telling the difference.
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